The Lorax
'The Lorax '''is a 2010 American 3-D computer animated science-fictional musical comedy adventure film directed by Kyle Balda and Tim Hill. Created and produced at ''Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film is adapted and based on children's book, The Lorax by famous American children's author and political cartonist Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). It is the eightith animated feature film in the Disney Animated Films Canon. The film got worldwide theatrical release on March 19, 2010. Synopsis In the walled city of Thneed-Ville, where everything is artificial and even the air is a commodity, a boy named Ted hopes to win the heart of his dream girl, Audrey. When he learns of her wish to see a real tree, Ted seeks out the Once-ler, a ruined old businessman outside of town in a stark wasteland. Upon hearing of how the hermit gave into his greed for profits and devastated the land over the protests of the Lorax, Ted is inspired to undo the disaster. However, the greedy Mayor of Thneed-Ville, Aloysius O'Hare, has made his fortune exploiting the environmental collapse and is determined to stop the boy from undermining his business. Plot Ted Wiggins (Zac Efron) is a 12-year-old boy, who lives in Thneedville, a walled city that, aside from the human citizens, is completely artificial; everything is made of plastic, metal, or synthetics with no living plants. Ted has a crush on local environmentalist Audrey (Taylor Swift), who wants to see a "real tree" more than anything in the world, so he decides to find one in order to impress her. His energetic Granny Norma (Betty White) secretly tells Ted the legend of the Once-ler, who will tell anyone about trees if they bring him fifteen cents, a nail, and a shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail. When Ted leaves Thneedville in search of the Once-ler (Ed Helms), he discovers that the outside world is a contaminated, empty, barren wasteland. Once the boy finds him, the Once-ler agrees to tell Ted about the trees on the condition that he listens to the story over multiple visits. Ted agrees, but on his next trip, he encounters the greedy mayor of Thneedville, Aloysius O'Hare (Rob Riggle), who is also the proprietor of a company that sells bottled oxygen ("fresh air") to Thneedville residents. O'Hare explains to Ted that trees produce oxygen free of charge, and therefore, he considers them and/or people talking about them to be a threat to his business. After revealing that he has "security-camera eyes" all over the city, O'Hare pressures Ted to stay in town. However, Ted continues to sneak out of O'Hare's sight with his grandmother's encouragement and learns more of the trees' history. Over Ted's various visits, the Once-ler recounts the story that when he was a young man, he departed his family to find good material for his Thneed invention and make a business. The Once-ler meets the guardian of the forest, the Lorax (Danny DeVito), after cutting down a Truffula tree in a lush Truffula tree forest valley. The Lorax urges the Once-ler to leave the forest, but the Once-ler refuses. Eventually, the Once-ler promises not to chop another tree down, and the two seem to begin a friendship of sorts. Then, the young businessman's Thneed invention becomes a major success and the Once-ler's family arrives to participate in the business. At first keeping his promise, the Once-ler continues Thneed production by harvesting the Truffula tree tufts in a slow, but sustainable manner. However, his greedy and lazy relatives soon convince him to resume chopping down the trees. Over time, the Once-ler's deforestation spirals into a mass overproduction. Flushed with wealth, the Once-ler rationalizes his short-sighted needs into arrogant self-righteousness, and the Lorax's helpless protests do not stop him. The Once-ler pollutes the sky, river, and landscape, until the very last Truffula tree falls. With no further chance of business, he is left broken and his money-broke mother disowns him. With the region uninhabitable because of the pollution and deforestation from the Once-ler's business, the Lorax sends the animals off to find a new place to live before the Once-ler sees him depart into the sky, leaving only a stone-cut word: "Unless". Distraught and ruined, the Once-ler becomes a recluse. After he finishes telling his story, the Once-ler finally understands the meaning behind the Lorax's last message, and gives Ted the last Truffula seed in hopes that he can use it to regrow the forest and make others care about real trees once more. Ted's desire to impress Audrey therefore becomes a personal mission to remind his town of the importance of nature. O'Hare, still determined not to have trees undercut his business, takes heavy-handed steps such as covering Audrey's nature paintings, closing off the door that Ted uses to see the Once-ler, and forcibly searching Ted's room for the seed, which has begun to grow after coming into contact with some water from Ted's falling bottle. Ted enlists his family and Audrey to help plant the seed. O'Hare and his two henchmen pursue the dissidents until they manage to elude him and reach the town center. When Ted finally attempts to plant the seed, he is interrupted by O'Hare, who rallies the population to stop them by telling the people that trees are extremely dangerous and filthy. To convince them otherwise, Ted takes an earthmover and rams down a section of the city wall to reveal the environmental destruction outside, thereby showing them what happened to the trees and what O'Hare is encouraging. Horrified at the sight and inspired by Ted's conviction (as though a part of the Lorax is within him), the crowd turns against O'Hare when they discover his true nature, with his own henchmen expelling him from the town with his jet pack-like helmet, and the seed is finally planted. Time passes and the land starts to recover; new trees sprout, the animals begin to return, and the redeemed, now-mustached Once-ler happily reunites with the Lorax Voice Cast * Danny DeVito as Lorax * Zac Efron as Ted Wiggins * Taylor Swift as Audrey * Ed Helms as The Once-ler * Rob Riggle as Aloysius O'Hare * Betty White as Grammy Norma * Jenny Slate as Mrs. Wiggins * Nasim Pedrad as Once Ler's Mother * Stephen Tobolowsky as Uncle Ubb * Elmarie Wendel as Aunt Grizelda * Danny Cooksey as Brett and Chet * Fletcher Sheridan as Cry Trivia *The characters of Ted and Audrey are named after Dr. Seuss (whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel) and his second wife Audrey Geise respectively. *The Lorax was the first film based on a Dr. Seuss property to be released in 3D, which is jokingly referred to promotionally as "IMAX Tree-D." *The song used in the theatrical trailer for The Lorax is "Light and Day" by The Polyphonic Spree. Other songs include "Campus" by Vampire Weekend; and "Quest for Glory" by Q-Factory. *In conjunction with the premiere of The Lorax, IHOP (International House of Pancakes) offered a set of Dr. Seuss themed breakfast menu items. It also offered a contest and a challenge to plant 3 million trees, with a bookmark with tree seed paper being given to kids 3 to 12. *In the book, the Lorax came out of the tree stump as soon as the Once-ler chopped it down, but in this film version, the Once-ler didn't see any of that magical event, which didn't take place until after one of the humming-fish knocked on it. Most likely, this is a reference to an old lumberjack superstition that one must knock on the wood of a tree before chopping it down as to ask permission from the nature spirit inside to do so and to promise to plant a seed in its place. *Since the Once-ler was naïve in youth to the rules of respecting nature, the "knock on wood" concept makes sense for summoning the Lorax. *Just recently, some of the songs in the movie have become memes on YouTube, notably "Let it Grow" and "How Bad Can I Be?". Category:2010 Category:2010 Films Category:Films Category:Animated Films Category:3-D Films Category:PG-Rated Films Category:Films Based On Books Category:Academy Award Nominee Films Category:Golden Globe Award Nominee Films Category:Annie Award Nominee Films Category:Saturn Award Nominee Films Category:Disney Animated Canon Feature Films Category:Disney Animated Revival Era Feature Films Category:The Lorax